The one time that happened to me the explanation was obvious-a big fat caterpillar was sitting underneath the other leaves. I noticed it before side sprouts appeared though. I guess I brought it in on some cut flowers from the yard. Be careful if you like fresh flowers. Not sure otherwise what it can be, but it seems like some kind of mechanical damage is most likely.

An African Violet's central crown can be destroyed in any of a few ways ...

* Mites destroy it
* Mechanical injury (i.e. it was accidentally damaged in handling)
* Over-fertilization killed the tender growth there
* I believe that water in the crown can be destructive too ... facilitaing rot perhaps

In any case, the crown will never recover ... and the (2) new growth centers you see are actually separate plants which will never reach their potential as suckers on the old plant.

The best thing to do is to remove the sucker plantlets (they can be snapped or cut out) ... and to start them in their own small pot of fresh potting mix.

The new plantlets will readily root and soon you will have two new plants to replace the one that went wrong.

â¢Posted by aseedisapromise z4.5 SD (My Page) on Tue, Jan 20, 15 at 9:23

â¢Posted by aegis500 Zone5 Indiana (My Page) on Tue, Jan 20, 15 at 9:42

Thank you so much for your thoughts. If there is any damage to the crown, I would have known. The strange thing is that there is none. I have attached the pictures.

Look into the center: the old crown grows into an end with one small supporting leaf. This occurred naturally. The new lead is on the right side. You can see a second lead at top left of the image.
{{gwi:2122493}}

{{gwi:2122494}}

The stems below the new lead are not its. This lead comes from several layers below.
{{gwi:2122495}}

The old crown grows into an end with one small supporting leaf. This occurred naturally. The new lead is on the right side.
{{gwi:2122496}}

{{gwi:2122497}}

Could this be a result of radio signal? Just some laughs.

I'm not sure what I'm looking at there.

I'm not sure you have lost the crown, ... the small leaf appearing in the center may, itself, be the beginning of a sucker, while the nearly centered growth center may, in fact, be the original crown.

â¢Posted by aegis500 Zone5 Indiana (My Page) on Tue, Jan 20, 15 at 15:37

Hi, I have made a marked diagram. I hope this shows the 3-dimensional information better.

I really love the AV very much. That is why I am so interested to see this happens. Does this happen a lot? Or, is this a strange occurrence. As part of the humor, I asked if this could be caused by radio wave in the first post.

This post was edited by jujujojo on Tue, Jan 20, 15 at 20:15

Thanks j ...

At least now I know what I'm looking at.

The growth center (crown), typically doesn't stop growing on its own. If that's what happened here, it's pretty rare.

Maybe it's due to old age ... like death stops the growth process in the human body.

The side shoots (suckers) are actually the plant reproducing itself.

â¢Posted by aegis500 Zone5 Indiana (My Page) on Wed, Jan 21, 15 at 15:37

Thank you so much for the insight.

These plants give me so much happiness!

I have the same thing happening with Buckeye Bonanza which was a small plant sent last March from Violet Barn.
It did well, grew fairly large, plain green, no variegation, over the summer but about a month ago, the crown stopped growing and a new crown sprouted, with variegation. If this is a sucker, perhaps But the old plant is dying out. It was much bigger with many more leaves. I have the same thing happening with a small Paradise Lost. The crown quit and a sucker? is sprouted off to the side replacing the crown.
Here are pictures

Next Picture

Next Picture

Any Ideas why the crowns should fail? Invariably, I have seen suckers sprout so the plant is saved, so far anyway but it is disconcerting to have crowns fail. No replacement crown/sucker has survived long enough to be certain they will become vigorous plants and bloom. Too soon to tell

This post was edited by lucky123 on Wed, Jan 21, 15 at 20:02

â¢Posted by lucky123 7 (My Page) on Wed, Jan 21, 15 at 19:34

In your pictures, however, the old crown appears to have been damaged.

Damaged?
It put out those small leaves you see on your plant before those small leaves died. That might look like damage but it is those tiny older leaves or dried up vestiges of them.
The old crown hasn't done anything for a while now and that entire part of the plant, the older green leaf, part is dying or disappearing.
The crown stubbed off. It grew a regular row of leaves, then a wisp of a leaf or two, then stubbed. Nada, nothing, naught, just stubbed. Was green for a while but now is turning that brown/red. The last row of leaves matured normally but no new crown growth.
I hope that new crown/sucker survives.

â¢Posted by lucky123 7 (My Page) on Wed, Jan 21, 15 at 20:57

Thank you for your information. In your case, I would not be surprised. The difference between our cases is that your old crown did go through a process of wilting and dying out. This could be caused by internal rot - like we sometimes see rot in a perfectly looking beet. BTW, your plant has a beautiful variegation.

In my case, the old crown never rots. As you can see in the picture, after all those small leaves have grown huge, the center of the crown is still vigorous. It just grows a wrong kind of leaf and could not continue. What could have triggered the plant to grow a wrong kind of leaf? aegis500 suggested that it could be the plant is overly mature, but it is quite rare. I imagine invisible radio wave as the cause.

{{gwi:2122495}}

This post was edited by jujujojo on Thu, Jan 22, 15 at 10:33

jujujojo

I have given your thoughtful and well reasoned response considerable thought.

However, that main stalk, any main stalk, the leaves age and die out. If the crown has ceased to make new leaves then the stalk become bare after a while. I thought that is what might be happening to my main plant, while the new crown/sucker is thriving.
Time will tell what happens to your main stalk as the older leaves are shed and no new leaves replace those lost on the main stalk.

You have a problem with specific symptoms, I have a problem with different yet similar symptoms.

Please keep me posted about your plant and what happens in time.

Anything we together can discover about the various causes of crown cease will be worth studying knowing and sharing. Invisible radio waves? I don't think so as I have tested with tin foil and no tell tale vibrations so far.

Again, I appreciate your responses as I puzzle out this odd crown cease problem

This post was edited by lucky123 on Thu, Jan 22, 15 at 11:09

â¢Posted by lucky123 7 (My Page) on Thu, Jan 22, 15 at 11:03

The invisible radio wave and tin foil are humorous.

jujujojo

Tin foil and radio waves is humorous? Hah, it is recommended to put tin foil on rim of clay pot because powerful radio wave cause damage to leaves. Is this not proof that invisible radio waves exist and tin foil can foil and absorb the harmful rays? Tin foil on rim of pots is not funny stuff. You should try!

Meanwhile.. I am watching for any more crown ceases/seizures. Whatever is causing it, perhaps a genetic anomaly, perhaps mechanical damage as you suggest, or an environmental problem, if two plants are affected, I definitely want to discover the cause and correct. One plant, just an anomaly, two or more..problem.

(tinfoil and radio waves are humorous :)

This post was edited by lucky123 on Thu, Jan 22, 15 at 15:52

Www.babyviolets.com has an article on plant suckers and what to do about . However, if it is in the plant 's genetics to sucker, you won 't be able to completely stop the process. I posted a suggestion of an explanation on the Gallery page. I meant to post it here. J, it is probably just the plant trying to reproduce itself, as Aegis explained. Optimara plants very commonly do that as they mature. Not all AVs maintain a single crown. When those side clumps get bigger, just remove them. You can use tweezers to reach in and pluck them out. However, once a plant starts to sucker, it is difficult to get it back to a single crown. Optimara plants are cultivated to grow rapidly and reproduce quickly. That is one reason they form suckers rather than maintaining the desirable single crown. In my AV club, this is a frequent topic for discussion. The topic is Optimara's tendency to sucker, not radio waves! Good luck! You are not doing anything wrong, the plant looks happy.

This post was edited by fortyseven on Fri, Jan 23, 15 at 21:33

This is getting worse. Despite the "new center", the plant appears to react as if it has been "beheaded". There are a large number of leads emerging.

Any plant that has suckered for me has never stopped at just one sucker. Always several at once, or in quick succession.

I lost both plants of Paradise Lost and Buckeye Extravaganza. I took the sucker off B. Extravaganza and it is now a growing, variegated plant, almost big enough to flower but the rest of the plant died. Paradise Lost quit growing at the crown and died. I did save a leaf and found another plantlet I thought I had lost so I now have one "found"other plant and mouse ears doing very well as Paradise Lost.

The crowns that ceased growing and sprouted "side suckers" expired. That side growth (sucker) and leaf sets are now plants to replace the ones that died.

Aegis 1000

That is exactly my experience! The plant that loses it's crown is dying. The plant is useful for a limited time as a "mother" either for leaf sets or suckers.

If you have several suckers coming, then I would definitely cut my losses and save at least one of them as a separate plant, since it is a plant that you like so very much.

aseedisapromise, fortyseven_gw, lucky123, aegis1000, mine has about 10 new leads.

Well, there you go. Save some when they get bigger, and start new ones of your lovely plant.